The Adventure Awaits
by Carlin
Summary: Major Shepard centric. Will involve a slash pairing in later chapters, as well as the one in the first. Ratings will vary for chapter.


**_Disclaimer: _**I do not own Stargate Atlantis or any of the characters trademarked by its

owners.

**_A/N: _**This story involves slash so please do not read unless you like that kind of thing.

I'm not sure if there will be a sequel to this chapter. That will probably depend on

the response I get from readers. Please r/r.

John Shepard stood in front of the door he had been dreading for  
the last day and a half. This would be the last time he would be standing  
here, and strangely, that made him sad. They had ended it cleanly,  
but he knew they both had some sort of feelings for each other. And  
that made this even more difficult.

He thought of all the other people that were spending their last  
few hours on Earth with the ones loved. All the people saying good-bye  
to their parents, spouses, and children. Knowing that chances are  
they'll never as much as talk to them again.

John figured he had it pretty easy. He'd said good-bye to his  
folks a long time ago. He could barely remember his mother because he  
was so young when she'd left. His father had died when he turned  
seventeen, and he had died the best man John had ever known. As far as  
children, John didn't have any kids. And spouses? He was about to  
address whatever might qualify for that in his life.It took him another moment to summon the courage to knock on the  
white do in front of him. His knuckle echoed with a dull thud through  
the door and he waited for it to open.Though, when it did Shepard himself at a strange lose for words.  
He had known that seeing Thomas again would be difficult, but he hadn't  
thought seeing him would make him speechless.Maybe it was the way that Thomas' light blue jeans set lowly on  
his hips, the same way they always did. Or maybe the way that the sun  
reflected off his green eyes perfectly."John?" It was Thomas' voice that broke him from his sudden stupor.  
"Are you all right?""Um...yeah. I just need to talk to you." He replied flatly. "Can I come  
in?"  
"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I mean, the way things  
happened last time...""I won't say much or stay long; I just need to tell you something."Thomas started to give a flurry of reasons why he shouldn't come  
in, and before John could stop himself he had shouted something. And  
honestly, he wasn't sure what he had shouted."What?" He heard Thomas say breathlessly.It suddenly came to him what he had shouted at the man standing in  
front of him. He took a breath to calm himself and tried to explain  
fully."I'm leaving. I got a new assignment, and I'm more than likely never  
coming back." John said in a voice that hardly sounded like his own."When...when are you leaving?" Came a deep, soft reply."About eighteen hours from now." John's heart dropped a little When  
Thomas' face fell. He hated having to tell him this, but he wouldn't be  
able to live with himself if he didn't at least let Thomas know he was  
leaving.Thomas never replied, he only left the door standing open and  
walked deeper in the house. John took it as the permission it was and  
followed after the brunette. The house was exactly as he remembered it.  
Still warm colors covered the hall and pictures of happier times still  
hung in their places. He was surprised Thomas had kept them all.Thomas had set about doing something in the kitchen and John  
walked through the room's doorless entry."So, I'm guessing you can't tell me where you're going." John knew it  
was statement not question. He'd hardly even been able to tell Thomas  
anything about the missions he'd went on, but for a long time Thomas  
faithfully moved around the states with him where he needed. He could  
still hear the same anger in Thomas' voice that had been there in the last  
few months of their relationship."No, I'm sorry. But I had to at least tell I was going.""Why is it so permanent? You make it sound like a suicide mission."

This time it was something more akin to fear in Thomas' voice, and that  
bothered John more than he knew. He'd tell him what he could.

"It's not a suicide mission it's just permanent." John tried to sound  
reassuring, but that was hard when he wasn't sure himself. After what  
seemed like a forever of silence John spoke up. "Let's just say other worldly.""Listen, I'm sorry that I just showed up and dropped something like  
this on you. And I'm sorry that in the years that we were together that  
I couldn't be better for you. You were that most important person in my  
life for a long time, and I thought you deserved to know that I just  
didn't up and disappear." His voice cracked a little with the last sentence and

this was one of the few times in his life that didn't bother him.

In a few large steps, Thomas crossed the kitchen and wrapped his  
arms around John's neck. Thomas wasn't a small man. Almost equal in  
height to John, and John's arms fit perfectly around his slim waist as  
they always had."No, I'm sorry. Sorry I couldn't deal with your job better." Thomas  
told John as he squeezed him tightly. The feeling of Thomas warm breath  
against his ear as he talk almost sent a shiver down his back. "And  
that I pushed you away when I didn't know what else to do"They just stood there holding each other for a while, offering  
comfort in the needed moment. Then slipping apart, almost awkwardly,  
they both leaned against opposite counters, Thomas looking down.  
"Well." John said with a note of finality. Neither of them had ever  
been very good at good-byes. John really wondered if there was anything  
else left to say."The adventure awaits." Thomas with a slight laugh. A few tears were  
sliding from his green eye and down his cheeks. And that's how Thomas  
had always told John good-bye when he would leave for missions. 'The  
adventure awaits.' It offered John a small bit of comfort and he  
returned the soft smile.He pushed away from the counter and made his out of the house  
quickly. He was starting a whole new part of his life, and with one  
last you look at what he was leaving behind he headed down the street.And a damned good adventure it had better be. 


End file.
